Posted on Feb 13, 2018
Friends say man shot by Tampa police was former U.S. Marine with PTSD
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Another Casualty, RIP Marine.
Friends say man shot by Tampa police was former U.S. Marine with PTSD
Posted from tampabay.com
PTSD
Mental Health
Psychology
Tampa
Iraq
Posted 7 y ago
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I'm very sorry to hear of that happening to a fellow Veteran. The effects can be bad, As a retired Police Officer with a combined 40 years Military and civilian experience i have dealt with Veteran's suffering from PTSD. I was able to defuse the situations esp once they found out I was a Viet Nam Veteran, that had a tendency to calm them down and make it easier and safer for everybody involved. I was patient and knew I couldn't deal the same way with them as someone that wasn't in crisis and most the time it worked pretty well. You can't be impatient and try to rush this situation or lose control Yourself then all is lost. protecting the public includes everybody and there is a big difference in a person in crisis vs a Criminal. I don't want to over simplify things and say its easy but then I think My background gave Me some insight many Police Officers today do not have esp after serving in a war zone. I'm not trying to compare anything I may have done with others but it still helps establish a feeling on the part of that person they are not alone. I feel and that is also based on the experience of facing that those situations as well.
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SMSgt Lawrence McCarter
PO3 Bob McCord - You sure are right about the multiple deployments, one of My friends that was a Sergeant in the Marines kept getting back to the mid East, last trip He was hurt. He had planned on making a career of the Marines but said, I don't have a death wish, just how many times can You tempt fate. He said when You have Gunnery Sergeants and Master Sergeants getting out there should be a message there. ! Another, a Viet Nam vet came home after a year in Viet Nam, 6 months later He was sent back, had two separate Purple Hearts on the return trip, they wanted Him to re-enlist, He didn't. More recently He has started having dreams and flashbacks which hadn't bothered Him before. The overuse of these people and excessive deployments has added to the problem and just made things worse. When You experience things no human being should have to handle there reaches a burnout level and the results may not be good. This is one of the high prices of manpower cuts and overuse of people that already may have handled more than should be expected of any human being.
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The harder part is why didn’t the VA admit him for evaluation? The man was obviously struggling and trying to get help. The VA system failed him. The shooting was just a consequence of that. Officers are not mental health specialists and we cannot assume that they will ever become that. They tried non lethal force first. What more could they have done? If he was threatening a relative and the cops with a machete should they have waited until he actually cut someone with it? The cops were put in a situation that was very hard to deal with. The VA put them in that situation by not taking care of this poor guy when they had the chance. He should have been receiving in patient care not slipping more and more into his disease. Tragic for the man. Tragic all around.
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